Want to build a data centre in Canada? These are the federal government's new expectations

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Source: CBC Politics
Date: 2026-09-03 15:30:00.0
Tags: [National, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Technology, Energy, Infrastructure]

The federal government announced a new framework outlining five core expectations for responsible AI data centre development, responding to public pushback over electricity and water consumption. Signatories to the framework include major corporations such as Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, Bell Canada, Cohere, eStruxture, Hypertec, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Telus. The policy follows major regional developments, including Meta's planned $13-billion AI data centre and $4.6-billion natural gas-fired power plant in Alberta, a contested Telus project in Vancouver, and provincial initiatives like Ontario's Data Centre Playbook and Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew's cancellation of a facility south of Winnipeg.